Now that we have the official backstory of Anakin Skywalker's rise and fall, what are the questions that you most want to see answered in the Expanded Universe (books, comics, television, videogames, etc)?

1) When will Luke and Leia learn about their mother?

There are enough survivors of Padme's inner circle that it seems pretty ridiculous that thirty years have been covered in the EU since the Battle of Endor, but no one seems to have told the Skywalker twins who she was.

Three years after ROTJ, Luke has learned quite a bit about his father. He knows he was raised as a slave on Tatooine, freed by Jedi during a podrace, and became a hero of the Clone Wars. And Leia learns quite a bit about Shmi during a mission to Tatooine. But five (?) years later, Luke is still grasping at straws when it comes to the other half of his parentage, and that's the last time it's brought up.

While it's true that only Bail, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and the Polis Massans knew that she'd given birth prior to her death, the commonplace knowledge that Luke and Leia were the children of Anakin Skywalker, AKA Darth Vader, should've rang quite a few bells with folks. Padme had quite a few handmaidens who should still be alive, not to mention her family. Mon Mothma is hinted to be aware of Padme's condition in Labyrinth of Evil, and even if she didn't know the two were married, she would've been able to hazard an educated guess. Heck, even Jar Jar Binks should be smart enough to put two and two together here.

Speaking of whom. . . .

2) Whatever happened to Jar Jar Binks?

No matter how the guy vanished in subsequent prequels, Jar Jar was being set up in 1999 for something big. And people didn't like him very much, so it didn't happen the way Lucas planned (and would never admit to now). So where is the doofus now? Palpatine didn't like aliens, but we see in ROTJ: DVDE that the Gungans are still alive and well as a race. Was Jar Jar executed as a loyalist sometime after Padme's funeral? Did he survive and serve on the Imperial Senate? Did he go into seclusion or start a failed career as a stand-up?

Seriously. Wherever he is, whatever happened to him, I want to know.

3) Whatever happened to Asajj Ventress and Aurra Sing?

I only lump them together because they're bad-arse Force-wielding bald alien babes, and everyone seems to either love 'em or hate 'em. And they both drop off the radar, for the most part, after the Clone Wars.

Asajj is last seen escaping into space following the Battle of Boz Pity (shortly prior to ROTS). She is uncertain of her alliances, uncertain of her future. Something tells me we're going to see a lot more of her shortly. A lot more.

I'm not so sure about Aurra Sing popping up again, though. She has a few run-ins with a young Boba Fett, then (as far as we know) drops completely off the map. We see her once again, shortly before the events of ROTJ, in Demolition, where she is supposedly a washed-up bounty hunter trying to make a comeback.

4) Who and where are the other Skywalkers?

We know that Shmi gave birth to Anakin, and that Anakin married Padme and begat Luke and Leia. Leia married Han Solo and had three kids (Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin Solo); Luke married Mara Jade and had a son named Ben.

But that's all we know.

We're unlikely to get a completely straightforward answer regarding Anakin's father. Lucas left this slightly ambiguous, and I doubt he'll approve anything that gives a definitive answer. But that only closes the door halfway. All we've ever learned about Shmi's past is that she was kidnapped from a starship by pirates, as a child or young woman, and sold into slavery. So it's possible that she still has family somewhere. Even if they're all dead, well, she still came from somewhere.

5) Where did the prophecy of the one who would bring balance to the Force originate? And is this the same as the "Son of the Suns"?

The prophecy is pretty confusing, and knowing exactly where it came from might help. Was it a renowned Jedi prophet? A Shaman of the Whills?

Which brings us to. . . .

6) What the hell is Yoda anyway?

I can't really elaborate on that. He and Yaddle seem to be the only members of. . . whatever species they are.

Rocketboy

08-24-2005, 06:49 PM

1) When will Luke and Leia learn about their mother?
2) Whatever happened to Jar Jar Binks?
4) Who and where are the other Skywalkers?
These are all reasons I think they jumped too far and too fast into post-OT EU.
They knew a prequel trilogy was coming (eventually) and dropped the ball by propelling the characters so far into their futures. Where are they now, like 30 years after Jedi? If they just had some patience the stories could have been so much better and cohesive to the entire saga.

3) Whatever happened to Asajj Ventress and Aurra Sing?No doubt they'll both turn up over and over and over in the 20 year gap between trilogies.

I have a question:
Why does the Post-Jedi EU continue?
They dropped a flippin' moon on Chewie's head for Pete's sake!
:D

Slicker

08-24-2005, 07:12 PM

6) What the hell is Yoda anyway?

I can't really elaborate on that. He and Yaddle seem to be the only members of. . . whatever species they are.This one I'm sure will eventually come out but from everything that I've read Lucas wants to keep it a mystery. We'll see 10 years down the road when Star Wars is struggling to find a fan base.

Umbra

08-24-2005, 08:16 PM

1) the dark nest trilogy:

Spoilers:

It appears R2-D2 has been hiding some things. And even when a few clips of padme are finally pried out of him. R2 still seems to think he's protecting Luke by not telling, but the twins have learned their mothers name at least.

Rocketboy

08-24-2005, 09:12 PM

This one I'm sure will eventually come out but from everything that I've read Lucas wants to keep it a mystery. We'll see 10 years down the road when Star Wars is struggling to find a fan base.The Yoda mystery is one thing I hope we never get an answer to. I like the mystery of him.

I think the introduction of Yaddle was a mistake, no matter how hot she was...

mastermatt24

08-25-2005, 12:35 AM

I wanna know more about pre-invasion Vong.

2-1B

08-25-2005, 12:49 AM

Chux, that's a good question about the Son of Suns thing from ROTJ, I'd like to know if there is some substance there that they plan to work with or if it was just a "throwaway" background sound effect that we made too much of ?

Not exactly related to your thread Chux but I'll ask it anyway because I'm curious . . . in one of the Zahn books, I remember Obi-Wan couldn't appear to Luke after 5 years or whatever. Did they ever explain WHY he couldn't ?

shammykenobi

08-25-2005, 08:43 AM

Not exactly related to your thread Chux but I'll ask it anyway because I'm curious . . . in one of the Zahn books, I remember Obi-Wan couldn't appear to Luke after 5 years or whatever. Did they ever explain WHY he couldn't ?

If I'm not mistaken I think that obi-wan explains to luke that the distance between them has become to far for him to be able to 'travel' to luke and give him advice whenever he needs it...even though the ability to come back after death is shown in the movies, it doesn't really tell how that happens or whether or not it's easy to do...I guess it would be kinda difficult and only need to happen when something important needs to be said...otherwise you'd have jedi ghosts hanging out all the time with people.

El Chuxter

08-25-2005, 02:02 PM

Umbra, I got a bit farther in The Joiner King last night and saw what you were referring to. IMHO, this is the most important moment in Star Wars since Vader tossing Palpatine down the reactor shaft.

As far as I'm concerned, 99.9% of The Joiner King is a well-written but minor subplot, something about killer bugs or something. Those couple of pages of Luke and Leia watching the holos are far more critical than anything else that could happen in the story. I don't care if Han gets crushed by a moon on the next page; that won't be the reason I'll remember this book.

scruffziller

08-25-2005, 02:26 PM

Perhaps more info will be displayed about Jar Jar and other charachters in the TV shows coming up.

Ryno

08-25-2005, 03:14 PM

[QUOTE=Rocketboy]These are all reasons I think they jumped too far and too fast into post-OT EU.
They knew a prequel trilogy was coming (eventually) and dropped the ball by propelling the characters so far into their futures. Where are they now, like 30 years after Jedi? If they just had some patience the stories could have been so much better and cohesive to the entire saga.

That's why I never really got into the EU. I read the Zahn trilogy and a few of the books that took place before and right after that, but I really don't have much of an interest in reading about Luke/Leia in their 50's and Han in his 60's.

Bel-Cam Jos

08-25-2005, 05:50 PM

Since Chuxter's 6 and Rocketboy's 1 make seven...

8. How DO Jedi become "ghosts?"
At first, we thought, well, when a Jedi dies and is a good guy, he becomes a specter. Then, since not all Jedi can do this, we find out it has to be taught. Okay, but then how does Anakin/Vader do it? Does he get taught as Vader and keeps it from Palpatine? And why does Vader/Anakin become a 20-something ghost, but Obi-Wan and Yoda are old? (Hear that, George? Don't mess with what it was! :upset: ). Will Qui-Gon tell us, and if so, how long will it take before it gets in a story?

9. How/where/when did the Rebellion start?
Obviously, after the events of ROTS but prior to ANH, a fairly large and decently organized force of insurgents develops into what it called the Rebellion Against the Empire. Was it a year after ROTS? A decade after?

10. Why does Tatooine fall into ignorance?
It's where Vader is begun, both as a little slave kid and visited as a young adult. Why would he ignore it? Yeah, it's an Outer Rim world, but if you read between the lines, it appears Palpatine knew of Anakin's Force powers/potential; wouldn't that be a place Vader would return to (Shmi's grave, search for his own father, kill some more Tuskens in revenge, etc.) at times? Might not the Emperor focus on it to at least KEEP Vader from going and therefore know about Luke and Obi-Wan?

11. How will the EU writers try to fix all the "goofs?"
(Droids adventures in comics [not cartoon], ages of characters now wrong, etc.) They're pretty good at it, but this might be a challenge for even the likes of Zahn, KJ Anderson, et al.

12. When will a really major character die?
Yes, Chewie was major, but I'm talking about Luke, Leia, Han, Lando (where the heck IS he is the EU stories?), one of the droids, Mara, Kyp, et al. I mean, the post-NJO is going on 30+ years after the movies; they're getting old and slow.

Rogue II

08-25-2005, 06:29 PM

Did any of the EU books ever say what happened to Padme's Family? Wouldn't Luke and Leia be interested in meeting them? What happened to Naboo as a whole? Did Palpatine eliminate the Queen and install an Imperial Governor?

It seems like they could do another "Tales from..." series and knock out some of the Clone Wars and Phantom Menace characters. (As long as they didn't get the same authors from the Bounty Hunters book.)

Most importantly, where is Lobot?

Rocketboy

08-25-2005, 10:11 PM

10. Why does Tatooine fall into ignorance?
It's where Vader is begun, both as a little slave kid and visited as a young adult. Why would he ignore it? Yeah, it's an Outer Rim world, but if you read between the lines, it appears Palpatine knew of Anakin's Force powers/potential; wouldn't that be a place Vader would return to (Shmi's grave, search for his own father, kill some more Tuskens in revenge, etc.) at times? Might not the Emperor focus on it to at least KEEP Vader from going and therefore know about Luke and Obi-Wan?This topic has been brought up before on the forums and argued about.
I still don't see why Vader would want to go back. I see it this way: When Anakin became Vader, he became Vader - Anakin was no more (or pushed deep, deep down) and Vader denied himself everything that Anakin was, especially since it was that conflict between Anakin and Vader that killed Padme.

El Chuxter

08-26-2005, 12:00 PM

Did any of the EU books ever say what happened to Padme's Family? Wouldn't Luke and Leia be interested in meeting them? What happened to Naboo as a whole? Did Palpatine eliminate the Queen and install an Imperial Governor?

It seems like they could do another "Tales from..." series and knock out some of the Clone Wars and Phantom Menace characters. (As long as they didn't get the same authors from the Bounty Hunters book.)

I've not actually read it yet, but Ruins of Dantooine shows Palpatine's retreat on Naboo. There's a new Queen who's basically an Imperial puppet.

"Tales of the Podracers" or "Tales of the Jedi Council" would rock. As long as it doesn't suck as bad as the Podracer comic they had on starwars.com a couple of years back.

As for Padme's family, well, it took Luke and Leia 31 years to actually find out what their mother looked like and get a first name. Since she was famous, I see them figuring it out as soon as they deal with those wacky giant bugs.

Rogue II

08-26-2005, 12:27 PM

Good for Lobot. Dare I ask what happened to Ice Cream Maker Guy? :D (I'm glad the out cry for a figure of that guys seems to be dead.)

I'd probably even read "Tales of the Podracers" and "Tales of the Jedi Council" if they did those, and I haven't read any prequel trilogy based books other than The Phantom Menace novel.

I'm so far behind on EU it isn't funny. I missed out on the comics, but I was knocking out about a book per month. I used to read while riding the train to work, but I moved and don't take the train. Even if I had the time, I don't know where I would start again.

Bel-Cam Jos

08-27-2005, 09:27 AM

I've not actually read it yet, but Ruins of Dantooine shows Palpatine's retreat on Naboo. There's a new Queen who's basically an Imperial puppet.

"Tales of the Podracers" or "Tales of the Jedi Council" would rock. As long as it doesn't suck as bad as the Podracer comic they had on starwars.com a couple of years back.What is this "Ruins of Dantooine" of which you speak? Comic, novel, trade paperback, e-book, magazine? Never heard of it. Are you refering to that SW:Galaxies book? I don't recall that part of the storyline... hmm.

All the Tales of... books rocked! TOTMEC is one of the best SW books ev-er! Other ones I'd read:
Tales of the Padawans
Tales of the Naboo Royal Palace
Tales of the Separatists

If it's good, I'll read it and enjoy it. If it's "just another SW book," I'll still read it, but it may get the dreaded "eh" rating.

El Chuxter

08-27-2005, 04:37 PM

Yeah, it's the Galaxies book. I have it, but haven't read it yet. I did thumb through enough of the intro to kind of combine it with some comments in a recent Insider Q&A (one of the few worthwhile questions they've address recently) about the status of Naboo in the OT era.